Lucas Durham grew up in a creative environment and was introduced to his first Macintosh computer drawing program by age two. By four, his mom was reading him Heinlein before bed. At six, his bedroom was decorated with prints from sci-fi and comic book artists and papered with drawings of his own.

It was inevitable that Lucas would move toward a career in illustration. His formal training began at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, while he independently explored digital illustration software.

As he studied traditional art fundamentals, Lucas developed a passion for the Renaissance and Baroque schools of art. This led him to fill out an application to study at the Florence Academy of Art. It was in Italy that he merged his interests in classical art with modern illustration narratives.

Upon graduation, Lucas worked as a concept design intern at The Bradford Exchange, where he was introduced to the legal disciplines of working with image licensing. During this time he plunged into the exploding online illustration community. Live streams became a staple of his continuing education and led to networking opportunities.